His First Wife

De: Sue Watson

Narrado por: Polly Edsell

My perfect man is married. And his wife is missing. Can I really trust him—or am I next?

Sophie wasn’t expecting to find love in Sicily. But then she sees him: Emilio, a professor who works at the university where she is teaching for the summer. He’s kind, intelligent, funny, exciting and deliriously unpredictable…

…maybe perfect.

But paradise quickly turns to purgatory as she uncovers the haunting disappearance of Emilio’s first wife. And when she senses a shadowy character following her, watching her every move, Sophie starts to question her grip on reality. Is she being paranoid, or is nothing about her new life really what it seems?

As further shocking revelations about Emilio’s past surface, Sophie knows one thing for certain: someone is trying to warn her away from him. But is that someone just jealous, or is Sophie caught in a lethal trap?

©2025 by Sue Watson. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Slow burn

It kept my interest enough. Secrets. Lies, and classic who done it? Emilio was forgettable and the author did not set up his character enough to make him likeable nor unlikable. He was an after thought.

storyline

Could just be me, but I didn't like how sometimes the audio sound/volume changed. It was like it was spliced in.
Storyline was entertaining. Had you guessing who the culprit was.

The storyline

I just liked the story and the narrator thanks so very much for having this on the list

Super boring

This was a waste of a credit. What a terrible book. The narrator was not great either. Just a big pass all around

Warning: Extremely bad audio quality and bad plot!

Warning: Extremely bad audio quality throughout - very echoey sound. I tried contacting Audible to get it fixed, but it didn’t help. In several spots, there are small re-recorded clips with even worse audio and terrible, jarring cuts. This happens multiple times and really breaks the flow.

The story itself was weak and predictable, and the audiobook narrator was flat and unengaging.

Overall, a poor experience—I would not recommend it.

Disappointed and lost… I just didn’t care anymore.

I grabbed this new title by Sue Watson immediately for a treasured credit. I wish I had listened to the complete audio sample, my huge mistake. Starting out slow, I decided to give it a chance. As Polly Edsel continued her narration of “His First Wife,” this became a mundane and ordinary book, and I found myself losing interest. My first narrative by Edsel was not exceptional (I missed the exquisite brilliance of Tamsin Kennard). I found Edsel’s Italian vocals so annoying; I do prefer British vocals (she had trouble with these as well). Still, with five hours left, I gave up and fast-tracked to the end.

2 stars

His First Wife by Sue Watson was okay. From the start, I never saw the appeal of Emilio or why Sophie was nearly obsessed with him. I also found quite a few editing errors that took me out of the story. There were several slightly eerie points that I enjoyed, but overall I found the characters annoying. Sophie is insecure and assumes without reason. Her secret is predictable and extremely underwhelming. Emilio is bland and boring, and Sabrina is a caricature of a spoiled brat.

Polly Edsell is a pretty good narrator. However, there’s a metallic echo to her voice, numerous background noises, and the re-recording edits are obvious and distracting.

What?

Were we supposed to sympathize with the main character? Why spend so much time on an annoying friend who then had little to do with the plot? Wtf was that ending? Did the narrator really need to try for a Sicilian male accent? They lived on an ash field? Just so weird…I ended up being annoyed.